Turning Point
by alexb49
Summary: What do you do when you feel less than human at the loss of a loved one? Total crack pairing. Hakoda/Dexter. Contains sexual themes between two adult males. Please read all warnings before proceeding. Spoilers for S4 for Dexter.


Untitled because I mean c'mon

Pairing Hakoda/Dexter

Warning: Massive spoilers for Season 4 finale of Dexter.

Set for Hakoda: before the events in ATLA (but just after the raid flashback in the Southern Raiders) and just after S4 finale for Dexter

I own neither of these shows.

I also don't watch Dexter that closely, so my apologies to any Dexter fans if I screw anything up. I also don't read the books so didn't know anything about that Moloch whatever the hell they did in that series before I whipped this out.

Summary: There is no explanation other than I would wreck both these dudes until their dicks fell off. If you're reading this far means you would totally do it too.

It's all avocado_love 's fault. *shakes tiny fist* I had so much work to do but kept getting distracted by having to write this.

* * *

A thin sliver of an orange moon hanging in a lavender sky told Hakoda he was where he needed to be. Not quite in the human realm. Not fully in the spirit world.

_In between._

It bordered on insanity - this voyage- so soon after the raid. What if the Fire Nation returned? But he was no use to anyone as he was at that very moment- a complete and utter failure. His duty had been to fight, to protect and he had _failed_ them all miserably. His people. His children.

His wife.

_Kya_.

It was _her_ wisdom, _her_ courage that saved Katara- saved _the village-_ when his knife and his spear that had been useless.

What use was his life of training? Of battle? He had so much Fire Nation blood on his hands but none when it mattered most. What kind of man would let the enemy strike down his wife in their own home? In front of their child?

He didn't feel human.

'Vision quest' the shamans used to call it. Ice dodging had been one of many physical rites of passage for those on the verge of manhood. There were tests of the mind as well. The tradition of a spiritual journey was something that had been neglected, fallen by the wayside as the war whittled away at generations of his people.

Bato had hesitated to suggest it, hoping that there would be some less drastic measure that would help his dearest friend but they saw there was little choice.

So Hakoda had begun to fast. No appetite anyway, so no real hardship there. With a kiss and a hug for his children he set out alone on their biggest ice floe, hoping to meditate and find himself again.

After a few days, the Guardian spirit came.

It took the shape of a massive polar wolf as it appeared. Magnificent head, more massive than any man, it towered over him but heeled to him like a pet all the same as it guided him to the in between.

It spoke –piped directly into Hakoda's thoughts- rich voice offering strength as it warmed him to the core. /You have come. You have had a great loss/

His heart ached to hear it said aloud even if he knew the Guardian came from within himself. "Yes."

/You are not alone in this. There are some who risk losing even more/ The beast shook its great silver grey body and silently padded the way forward, leaving no foot prints. /Come. There is work to be done/

They walked together through the ethereal ever-changing landscape where the details were more pronounced but the colors less vivid. It felt like hours or even days as the foreign pockmarked moon becoming fuller and fuller overhead.

Ears went flat against the wolf's grizzled head at the sound of a frigid-cold cackle of a laugh, hard enough to shatter glass. Hackles rose automatically and a low growl came out from deep within its chest in response.

/Here/ It bounded up ahead, Hakoda following with trepidation.

An oddly dressed man -shockingly pale, strong facial features that were handsome but so unlike any of the four Nations Hakoda had ever seen- was standing alone in a clearing. Eyes that shade of green usually meant Earth Kingdom and his expression was impassive enough for any earthbender, but it didn't seem to fit.

The man failed to respond to the imposing polar wolf snarling in his face but something draped across his back surely did.

It had been a mistake to think the pale man was alone.

There was something clasped to the stranger, difficult to make out. Hakoda tried to focus on it but his eyes slid off of it like the, the _thing_ didn't _want_ to be seen, a fish that kept slipping away from bare hands that wanted to grasp. He tried glancing away and back again and ah!

_Spirits_! It was there.

Skeletal arms, stained with dark red blood, draped around the man's shoulders like a cloak.

/_This is none of your concern, Wolf. This one is my Hunter_ _and I am HUNGRY_/ The voice was oily, thick, the feel of it enough to send ripples of nausea through anyone within ear shot.

Snarling anew, the wolf circled the man and the parasite that clung to him. /You will not spread your evil here, dark one!/

That something-burrowing -under-your-skin laugh came again. _/You are far too late! What little heart my Hunter had has been _cut_ out!/_

A low moan from the man surprised them all. His face of granite shifted to reveal shifting sands of agony that tore at him.

"Rita." The word, the _name_, was filled with such terrible longing. Hakoda knew that feeling well.

With its tongue lolling out, the wolf looked all too human as it laughed its canid-ursine laugh. /You think you have won? I see there is some fight left in him still/

The huge creature paced before the strange man and his bloody shadow. /And my Hunter has enough heart for them both!/ With that the wolf launched itself _through_ the man, body shaking as the invisible battle raged within him. Just as suddenly it was over.

Hakoda moved quickly to catch the man's trembling frame in his arms. 'Hunter'. That's what the spirits had called them both. Perhaps a fellow warrior then.

The Guardian must have brought them together for a reason.

"The darkness." Stroking the broad back, Hakoda spoke soft words into soft hair of a man whose name he didn't know and didn't need to know. "It's gone."

"_No_. Not gone." The broken man sobbed dry heaving sobs into his chest. "It's still here. Still inside _me_. But it's everything else that's all used up." Hakoda ignored the pain of surprisingly strong fingers digging at his ribs, giving him something tangible to focus on in this intangible place. "The Dark Passenger is all that's _left_."

So odd, to give your demon a proper name. But no more unusual than the Guardian, he supposed.

"That can't be true. I know what it feels like to have your heart taken from you. " It was impossible for Hakoda to keep the waver out of his voice. "There first has to be _love_ for you to mourn its _loss_."

He levered the strong chin up with a finger, analyzing the moss green eyes rimmed in bloodshot red. "There has to be more in you than simply darkness." Impossibly long lashes tickled his lips, fluttering shut as he placed a gentle kiss over one eyelid then the other, tasting the salt in hot tears that had taken so long to fall. "I was brought here because my people know where there is water, there is life. This is fate."

The words. Something about his words made the man tense with suspicion. "What the fuck is this?" He growled with savage ferocity. "No more games! Not now!"

When a body honed in battle faced a stranger that drew his strength from some visceral place the fight was almost even. That is until years of warrior instinct saw an opening that allowed Hakoda to bring up a hard elbow across the man's face, sending him staggering back. "There is no need for this!" he commanded. "There's been too much violence already!"

The stranger seemed to respond to this easy authority. "It feels like violence is the only thing I'm good at. " The haunted man relaxed as the berserker in him retreated into the dark corners of his mind. "Sometimes not even that."

_Spirits_. He watched the moss green eyes regard him coolly. "Then we are more alike than I thought," he rumbled back. Looking up, Hakoda regarded the strange scarred moon, so similar yet different to the one that watched over his people. His Sokka. His Katara. "Seeing this pain in another makes me realize I need to end this war to so my children never have to feel this way."

"My son." It was only a whisper, probably not intended for Hakoda to hear. A visible shiver went through the strange man. Louder now. "Do you think it's possible? To end the bloodshed even if you can't change yourself?"

"I don't know. " Hakoda's face collapsed in on itself, eyes screwed tight at the thought of more failure. "But I have to try. For them. For her."

He didn't realize that he had tears of his own until a finger traced their path down his face.

The man was so close those haunted green eyes filled Hakoda's field of vision. "Where there's water there's life, right?" The smooth control in that voice; at another time or place it could have fooled anyone. "I need to feel alive." A tongue lapped at a tear that clung tenaciously to the angle of his chin.

What happened didn't surprise Hakoda as much as it should have. It wouldn't be the first time that a surge of adrenaline became a surge of something else entirely. Any warrior knew this. And any warrior in the Water Tribe was ready to help a brother in need of release. If this strange handsome man with his inner beast, this Dark Passenger, thought it would help then so be it. In all honesty, he knew that he also needed to reconnect.

He threw his head back to expose delicate flesh, letting the man continue to mouth the trail of tears down his throat. Those strong, strong hands were there again, kneading at the bony edge of Hakoda's hips.

Once the tears had all been collected, Hakoda tugged the man's head back, exploring those firm full lips with tongue and teeth. Impossible to confuse this smell that was distinctly masculine or this feel of the rasp of stubble with any woman.

It was perfect.

They fumbled for each other's clothes, strange man with his even stranger clothing that gave him pause. But not for long.

Underneath it all they were not so very different.

A caress here, a hot mouth there. It was an exploration. The story of each scar on them both could fill a library. They moved in counterpoint once their urgency set in, driving together with such force that would have surely left bruises in the real world but here…

Here it was just bliss.

The pressure spiraled up and up and up until the dam burst and they shuddered together as they came, the animal grunts of one setting off the other.

The two lay sprawled together, struggling to catch their breath.

The stranger looked calm for the first time. Not peaceful but it was a start. "Thank you."

Hakoda closed his eyes and smiled. "Maybe we'll meet again someday."

Time passed with no response. He opened his eyes to a featureless expanse of white. The frigid South Pole winds whipped at his face. He sighed, part regret; part relief.

Time to go home.


End file.
